The incident occurred at Yerevan’s Yerablur Military Pantheon where Simonian, President Vahagn Khachaturian and other officials laid flowers on the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the 2020 war in Karabakh. Metakse Hakobian, an exiled Karabakh parliamentarian and outspoken critic of the Armenian government, railed against them as they walked past her there. She blamed the “blood-soaked” government for the subsequent fall of Karabakh and mass exodus of its population.
“The tribute was a success,” Hakobian sniped at the officials as they left the military cemetery where many of the Armenian soldiers killed in the war were laid to rest.
Simonian responded by telling his bodyguards to “take this garbage cat away from here.”
Hakobian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service on Wednesday that some of the bodyguards approached her moments later. She said she assured them that she is not going to “hit” any of the officials.
The activist defended her actions at Yerablur, saying that she did not insult anyone. “I noted facts in literary Armenian without using any expletives,” she said.
Nagorno-Karabakh - Metakse Hakobian speaks during a session of the Karabakh parliament.
Simonian was unrepentant about his insult when he spoke to journalists on Tuesday. He said that the displaced woman spoke to him and the largely ceremonial present in an “inadmissible” manner.
“They don’t realize where they are and who they talk to, and I promise them and people around them they will definitely realize that,” said Simonian.
Human rights activists and government critics condemned the speaker allied to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. Zaruhi Hovannisian, a veteran campaigner, said the Armenian parliament should set up a special ethics commission to evaluate its speaker’s behavior. The parliament’s pro-government majority is unlikely to do that.
Simonian already drew widespread condemnation after spitting at a Canadian-Armenian activist who branded him a “traitor” at a popular dining area of Yerevan in April 2023. The activist, Garen Megerdichian, said he was overpowered by Simonian’s bodyguards before being spat in the face. Law-enforcement authorities dismissed at the time a civic group’s demand to prosecute the speaker for “hooliganism.”
Simonian, 44, is no stranger to controversy. In 2021, he made disparaging comments about Armenian soldiers taken prisoner during the 2020 war with Azerbaijan, angering their families. A year later, Simonian defended his mother after she was caught on camera spitting at opposition protesters and showing the middle finger to them from the balcony of her Yerevan apartment.